This blog is intended to go along with Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, by John R. Weeks, published by Cengage Learning. The latest edition is the 12th (it came out in 2015), but this blog is meant to complement any edition of the book by showing the way in which demographic issues are regularly in the news.

If you are a user of my textbook and would like to suggest a blog post idea, please email me at: john.weeks@sdsu.edu

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Syria Continues to Explode and Implode

With Hezbollah having entered the Syrian civil war on the side of the Assad regime, violence seems to have escalated even more, creating an ever large refugee problem. Foreign Policy Magazines notes that the United Nations responded yesterday with what it says is its largest appeal ever for humanitarian aid. According to Reuters:

The United Nations expects 10.25 Syrians, half the population, will need humanitarian aid by the end of 2013 at a cost of more than $5 billion, U.N. humanitarian agencies said in an updated Syria response plan published on Friday. The new forecasts include more than a doubling of the refugee population over the next six months.

The civil war in Syria has led to the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world amid a conflict in which hospitals, schools and water and sanitation infrastructure have been targeted.

But some fear that the $5bn appeal will not be enough as aid agencies have struggled to keep pace with the three-year crisis which has left more than 80,000 people dead.

"Unfortunately, several of the former appeals for the humanitarian response inside Syria and in neighbouring countries have underestimated the scale of the crisis," said Toril Brekke, acting secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

It is very clear that we will be living with the demographic, economic, and political consequences of this for a long time.

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Weeks Population Companion App

The app provides learning objectives and main points for each chapter, along with a quick POPquiz to test knowledge about key population information, and there is also a link to the WeeksPopulation blog.